Shofar FTP Archive File: camps/aktion.reinhard/belzec/prolog.arad

Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Operation Reinhard - Planned Extermination
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Belzec,Globocnik,Reinhard,Sobibor,Treblinka,Wirth
Archive/File: holocaust/poland/reinhard prolog.arad
Last-modified: 1993/03/05
"The largest single massacre action of the Holocaust, Operation
Reinhard, which lasted twenty-one months, from March 1942 to November
1943, was carried out by, and accomplished according to the plans of,
the Nazi extermination machine. It was an integral and substantial
part of the overall plan for the `Final Solution of the Jewish
Problem.'
The commanders of Operation Reinhard, Globocnik, Wirth, and the SS men
subordinate to them, succeeded in creating an efficient yet simple
system of mass extermination by using relatively scanty resources. In
each of the death camps -- in Belzec, in Sobibor, and in Treblinka --
a limited number of 20 to 35 Germans were stationed for purposed of
command and supervision, and about 90 to 130 Ukrainians were
responsible for guard duties. All the physical work of the
extermination process was imposed on 700 to 1,000 Jewish prisoners who
were kept in each camp.
The layout and structure of the camps were adapted to serve the
extermination system and procedure. they were relatively small and
compact, which enabled permanent and strict control over the entire
area and all activities in the camp. The material used to build the
camps -- lumber and bricks -- and the means used for extermination --
a simple motor vehicle and ordinary petrol -- were readily available
in the immediate vicinity. Local workers and Jewish prisoners built
the camps. All these elements made the entire operation independent of
outside and distant factors. ... The killing system, as developed by
Wirth, enabled the murder of tens of thousands of Jews every day in
the three death camps under his jurisdiction.
...
The ruse continued even after the Jews arrived in the camps. Almost
all of the victims went to the gas chambers believing that these were
indeed baths. Secrecy, deception, and disguise on the one hand, and
little chance for rescue or for hiding among the local population on
the other hand, enabled the Nazis to keep their extermination machine
running smoothly.
But those Jews who were selected for work in the camps and who were
aware of what was going on there did not give up. Prisoners in Sobibor
and Treblinka succeeded, despite the strict control and surveillance
under which they were kept, in carrying out individual escapes and in
staging an uprising accompanied by a mass escape. The uprisings
ensured the survival of hundreds of prisoners and revealed the secrets
of the death camps to the world. These survivors were the main
witnesses at the Sobibor and Treblinka trials in the Federal Republic
of Germany, as well as at other trials. The perpetrators did not
succeed in their attempts to bury and burn the truth of the camps
together with the victims.
BELZEC, SOBIBOR, & TREBLINKA: An integral part of the Nazi killing
machine in occupied Poland - these camps served one purpose, and one
purpose only - the total destruction of the Jewish people.
The Nazi leaders adopted and executed a deliberate and massive
campaign of genocide which has been documented beyond dispute and is
accepted by an entire world, excepting only those Neo-Nazi elements
cloaking their continuing hatred of the Jewish people in
pseudo-historical nonsense.
The existence of Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz, Maidanek,
Chelmno and others is beyond question. The purpose for which these
camps were created is also beyond question.
Others have pointed out that any system of justice can be said to be
flawed, in that it represents only the reality of its time. I am not
here to argue that point. Instead, I provide enough information for
those who wish to pursue it to their own conclusions - in this case,
the legal records of the German people, specifically as they relate to
the three camps noted at the beginning of this article:
"Nazi criminals who served in these camps stood trial in West Germany.
The trial of the SS men who had served in Belzec was held in Munich in
January 1965. The primary defendant was Josef Oberhauser; there were
six others. The trial of the SS men who had served in Sobibor was held
in Hagen and lasted fifteen months, from September 1965 until December
1966. The leading defendent was Kurt Bolender; there were eleven
others. The first Treblinka trial, at which ten of the SS men who
served in the camp were broght to trial, amonth them Kurt Franz, the
deputy commander, was held in Dusseldorf between October 1964 and
August 1965. The second Treblinka trial, at which Franz Stangl, the
commander of the camp, was tried, was also held in Dusseldorf, from
September 1969 to December 1970." *
* Excerpted from....
BELZEC, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps
Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7

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